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Which 72nd Sea King?


4scourge7

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Hi all

Appreciated the help with Falklands helos. I`m now asking the obvious follow-on which is; which Sea King kit/kits best represent both HAS.5 and HC.4 versions in1/72?

I know hee-haw about Sea Kings, I`m ashamed to say. Is there a kit that allows both versions to be produced, or do I have to go to two separate kits? 

 

Cheers, Ian

 

 

 

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The only HC. 4 I'm Aware of "in box" is the recent new Airfix tool. Not sure whether Revell did a 5 boxing, but they had a 6/AEW kit some years ago, and I think some People prefer the Revell kit over the Airfix even though the Revell is now some 20 years old.

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I've not seen the newer Airfix or Revell kits, so can't comment on them, but I remember the Fujimi Sea King as being very nice. I don't know, either, if you can do an HC.4 from one. IIRC, for British Sea Kings there was a RN release (HAS.5?) and a RAF HAR.3. At one point I had both in the stash, but they've since been auctioned off.

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IIRC, the Sea King story...

 

Fujimi - very nice, a bit basic but a Sikorsky machine

Revell (newer one)  - very nice, but the sponsons a tad anemic, also need to be careful which boxing to get for a particular mark (Not all the boxings have all the bits)

Airfix - newsest, some feel the detail is not as good as the Revell one...

 

Cheers!

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Try scalemates.com to find your Sea king versions.

Then peruse this GB from 2015 http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/504-sea-king-single-type-group-build/

to see if anyone has built it.

Following photobucket, I doubt many photos are in there, but you'll get a flavour from the comments.

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14 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I've heard the Revell sponsons are too small -- is there a correction for this?

 

Yes, resin ones available from Whirlybird.

 

Mark.

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I'm building the Airfix HAR3 converting it to a RN cab and I think it's cracking kit, I have two of the Revell kits and two of the Cyberhobby Sea King kits and i must say I prefer the Airfix versions but that's my preference. 

Each company has its own merits on the kits that they produce so I can only advise on my experience, the Revell boxings would be a close second though :) 

 

Dan 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd second the praise for the new tool Airfix kit.  I was given an HAR3 by a well-meaning friend who knows little about RAF / RN differences ("you flew SAR, so this was your aircraft, no?..."), and I used it as one of many inputs to the drawings I did to correct the more egregious errors in Caruana's [see my 1/48 HAS5 build for details].  Of all the kits I used, the Airfix one had the fewest errors.  

 

Shame it's not my scale, really - but it looks a good kit.

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Back when Revell originally released their Royal Navy variant kit I contacted them to ask if they were considering a re-release with the necessary parts to release it as an HC.4 and was told in reply that initially the plan had been to include these as an option in the original kit but it had quickly become apparent that the tooling required to do so would have made the kit prohibitively expensive.      

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That's not surprising; there are a LOT of differences between the HC4 and the various RN ASW versions (and AEW, which were originally based on HAS2s).  The HAR3 is actually the closest cousin go the HC4 - which probably partly explains Airfix's choice of marks.

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11 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

It's not just the sponsons, compared side by side along with photos of the real thing, there are a lot more 'correct' shapes on the Airfix kit compared to the Revell. And I still have 8 Revell kits in the stash!

Though I hope you will agree that the sandbox filter on the AX kit is a major disappointment.  Still, never mind: build an early one with the barn-door FOD guard instead.

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10 hours ago, andyf117 said:

In the 'Mystery of the Missing Parts' discussed here, the HC.4 was suggested as a possible explanation:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234952365-revells-172-sea-king-kits-the-mystery-of-the-missing-parts/

 

Thanks for pointing that out , very interesting indeed.

 

I had a look at the parts plan on an old set of instructions this morning and it looks very much that with so many ASW/AEW parts such as the undercarriage for example distributed across existing sprues of common parts not only was the cost of additional HC.4 parts too high in the original kit but the later substitution of a type specific sprue would have been impossible for the same reason.

 

Some time later when the Diecast Helicopter Collection was released in the UK I did acquire a couple of their introductory HC.4 models at £1.99 each with the intention of sawing relevant parts such as the undercarriage off to attempt a conversion of the Revell kit but never found the time to try it. 

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5 hours ago, andyf117 said:

I had exactly the same thing in mind, and got a few of the die-casts later via eBay - but the only really useable parts are the inflation bottles, flotation cans and undercarriage fairings. The stub wings are too small, and the struts too thick - the cockpit glazing and sawn-off lower nose, however, can be used to replace the equivalent areas of the old Airfix kit and/or the Aurora HH-3 Jolly Green Giant.....

 Very reassuring to see that I am not the only one who gets these ideas.

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